QUETTA: Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) chairperson Marvi Memon said on Wednesday that the three-month stipend for women had been increased to Rs4,700 and added that a new registration survey was being launched in several districts of Balochistan.

Ms Memon was addressing women’s gatherings at the BISP’s office in Dera Murad Jamali and other areas, including Goth Ghulam Muhammad Sarpara, Manjho Shori and Goth Shaukat Bangulzai. BISP Balochistan Director General Abdul Rauf accompanied her.

“Earlier, Rs4,500 was being given to beneficiary women as the quarterly unconditional cash transfer,” Ms Memon said, adding that the aid had been increased to Rs4,700.

She said that after the Ramazan, a fresh survey would be conducted in Nasirabad, Kech (Turbat) and Qila Saifullah districts to bring more women into BISP in order to extend financial assistance to a maximum number of women. “Making women financially powerful is our motive,” she said.

The chairperson said it was the need of the hour to mobilise and empower women so that they could play their due role in the development of the country.

Some elements, she said, had been trying to create political instability in the country by holding protests and sit-ins whereas Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had been taking concrete steps to bring Pakistan on a par with the financially powerful countries.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2016